CFP: Politics (with)out Passions. Reasons and Affections in the Public Space

The aim of the present issue of Lo Sguardo is to focus on the “emotional turn” that has taken place both in analytic and continental philosophy. In the last years emotions – and the connected and relational world they represent – are becoming the object of an extensive multidisciplinary analysis that includes contributions from moral philosophy to neuroscience. Considering the increasing amount of publications on this topic, we want to contribute to the debate developing a critical view based on a genealogical approach.

The issue will question the very notion of emotion as a modern one, working out the implicit assumptions that it underlies. Which are the conceptual implications of the semantic shift between passions and emotions? Which anthropological paradigm are we elaborating through this new focus on the affections? And what kind of ontological, metaphysical and political relations it entails? Contributions at this issue should aim to a deconstruction and reconstruction of the notions of passion, affection and emotion, in order to develop a critical distance from the current conceptions.

As we learn from the ancient philosophers, the tension between passions and reason rules not only the internal dynamic of the subject, but also the public realm as the natural human political dimension. It is possible to ask then about the origin and role of the emotions in contemporary political theory, narrative and action. It seems, in fact, that the liberal, rationalistic approach to politics – according to which politics is the sphere of negotiation of interests – has been lately replaced by a stress on its affective dimension and by a renewed claim for political passions, the “negative” as much as the “positive” ones: anger, rage, indignation, shame, pride, enthusiasm, compassion, love and solidarity are some of the keywords coming from very different standpoints of the political spectrum.

Now it seems – as the ancients state – that politics is no longer just a matter of reason(s) and rational choices, but also of affections. More: that a certain kind of politicization or de-politicization of the affections is constantly defining or redefining the limits of the public space. As a consequence, we should analyze the relations between reason, emotions and passions. Which kind of rationality are we able to think for that relation? It is possible to imagine different kind of rationalities despite the domain of the singular reason that opposes itself to the plurality of the passions?

This issue of Lo Sguardo aims to address these questions by reviewing the most relevant political passions and discussing how they relate to the political as such, modifying or perverting our judgment. Some relevant philosophers and political thinkers have accepted to participate to this issue and we expect further papers following these research lines. Can we really make and understand politics with o without passions?

ACCEPTED LANGUAGES:
ITALIAN, ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, AND SPANISH

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS: March, 20th, 2018

Procedure: Send an abstract of up to 4,000 characters, including the title of the proposed contribution and an outline of its argument, to [email protected] by the specified deadline. Proposals will be evaluated by the editors of the Journal and a panel of readers, and the results of the selection will be announced to the authors by April 15th, 2018. Accepted papers will then have to be submitted to the editors by a new deadline, which will be announced to the authors with the results of the selection, and will undergo a double-blind review.

Call for abstracts / papers

This issue of Lo Sguardo invites researchers and scholars working in the fields of philosophy and history of philosophy to contribute to issue 2/2018 of the journal according to the following guidelines. Only proposals pertaining to the specified topics will be taken into consideration.

CFP/1 – Origins: a genalogical approach to the passions in politics.

This section will host papers concerning the political history of emotions. Comparisons between ancient and modern passions will be especially welcome as well as the analysis of the changes in the representation and value of some particular passion. Which passions have been sanctioned or exalted in a certain time and in a specific political context? How and why did political theory stop being rationalistic and went emotional?

CFP/2 – Critique: political emotions or politics of emotions?

There are a few reasons to be weary of the emotional turn in political theory and praxis. Admittedly, emotions and affections move people to act, and political philosophy should always take this into account, but, on the one hand, the rational balance of emotions is equally important in politics; on the other hand, emotions themselves are part of the political struggle, and they can be manipulated in the game of power. In this section we invite papers focused on the dangerous relations between emotions and rationality in the public sphere. What is the rationality of each concrete emotion? How they emerge and how they decline in political conflicts? We’d also like to address questions regarding the economy of emotions: how emotions interact between them or with ideologies and political conceptions they support or attack? The morality of political emotions should also be regarded in this section.

CFA/3 – Media and emotions.

Media in the broadest sense constitute the main channel through which political emotions are displayed and enacted. Papers concerning the role of emotions in contemporary media – especially social networks and internet – are welcomed in this section. How do emotions shape the public realm, to what extent is the public sphere distorted or amplified by the emotional turn? To what extent are human emotions and affections modified by their exposure to contemporary media and social networks?

Cristina Basili, Antonio Gómez-Ramos

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